Scientists studying underwater oil plumes from spill

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Scientists aboard the research vessel Pelican discovered giant plumes of oil hovering more than 2,000 feet below the surface of the ocean near the site of the massive crude leak in the Gulf of Mexico being battled by BP.

While reports of oil washing up on beaches have been relatively rare thus far, at least three huge plumes of oil are lurking well under the surface, but above the sea floor 5,000 feet down, where a broken rise pipe continues to spew oil about 50 miles south of Louisiana.

The plumes have been consuming oxygen in the water and could impact marine life, scientists said.

Vernon Asper, a professor of marine science at the University of Southern Mississippi, said in an interview with NPR that one is at about 2300 feet, another at about 3,300 feet and a third at about 4,300 feet. They're about 100 meters thick.

They measure about four to five miles wide and about 10 to 15 miles long.

"It's very possible that these plumes could drift around and actually impinge on the seafloor at some point," Asper said.

Researchers have detected the plume with instruments, and plan to attempt to lower cameras to capture images of them.

"You can think of the plumes the same way you would think of the ash cloud from a volcano," Asper said. "It rises up off the seafloor, it reaches a level in the ocean where it's no longer buoyant, and then it spreads out, and it's simply carried by the prevailing wind this case, in the ocean, it's prevailing currents and they take them which way they're going. And it turns out in this case, the currents happen to be going to the Southwest."

Asper said the scientists, who are working in conjunction with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, don't know why some of the oil from the spill isn't floating.

They pointed out that BP
BP, -0.55%
is testing the application of dispersant chemicals at the sea bed for the first time.

"There's also sort of an unknown here, and that is the effect of the dispersants," Asper said. "We don't know what the dispersants are really doing to this deep oil. It's possible that they will affect the way these plumes act. And, in fact, these plumes could be the result of them adding dispersants already."

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